Tacky Tuxedo

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It's Prom Night! Or it's a wedding! It could be Shlomo's bar mitzvah, but no matter what kind of an event, Weirdo McGeek is invited as well. And what kind of garment did he choose to show up wearing?

A frilled shirt, a bowtie, a cummerbund, and a tuxedo in baby blue.

It's a disco-style tuxedo John Travolta could barely look good in, but the Hollywood Nerd usually comes dressed up like this to a fancy event. Usually an over-the-top exaggeration of the schizoid styles used in the Real Life 70s, falling out of fashion as disco music died downnote This in the West. You can easily see ruffled shirts in Asian and Arab countries. Frilly shirts and big ties in particular made a comeback during most of The '90s and The Aughts until the very early 2010s, although suits had more conventional schemes.

It seems to be the case for a moment in Superman: The Wedding Album with Clark's wedding costume, but when he protests, he's told that the tacky costume was just to test his size and shoulder broadness, and then he's given a better tuxedo.

Comic Strips

Jon Arbuckle of Garfield has also been known to wear pink and purple suits as well.

Zits: In an attempt to persuade Sara to go to the prom with him, Jeremy borrows a tuxedo that used to belong to Hector's grandfather. Only when Hector gives it to him does he discover that Hector's grandfather had been in a mariachi band.

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Fan Works

In the backstory of Say It Thrice, Lydia sasses Beetlejuice about the tacky tux he wore for their almost-wedding in the movie, saying that both that outfit and the dress he gave her were beyond ridiculous.

When shopping for wedding attire in Disorienuptials, Varric trolls Dorian mercilessly by modeling a couple of these. Most notably, he emerges from the fitting room clad from head to toe in shocking pink... and points out that the outfit is also available in orange.

Films — Live-Action

The title character in Angus wears a particularly hideous purple one. He had his heart set on a "normal, socially-acceptable" black tux, but the shop had nothing else big enough to fit him.

Tom Hanks as Josh in Big shows up to a black-tie cocktail party in a white sequined tuxedo. The party is so shocked by his appearance that he tries to surreptitiously check his fly. Luckily for him, his boss is so bored with everybody dressing the same at these parties  and having the same conversations over and over again  that he is ecstatic that somebody dodged convention.

Dumb and Dumber: Lloyd and Harry show up to a formal charity event in orange and blue tuxedos, respectively, complete with gloves, top hats, tails and walking sticks.

In My Cousin Vinny, Vinny shows up to court wearing a particularly hideous old maroon tux he had obtained at the last minute from the thrift store. Not like he had much of a choice; the judge had ordered him to wear a suit, and the local dry cleaners were closed due to a flu outbreak, so it was either that or his leather jacket, of which he already knew the judge disapproved.

In Father of the Bride (1991), Steve Martin's character pulls one of these out of mothballs in the attic, to the amusement of his wife and daughter. Then, for the actual wedding, he dons a knockoff Armani tux which (as he discovers when it's pointed out by other characters) is actually navy blue.

In Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a mix-up at the tuxedo rental place causes Anthony's tux to be given to someone else. The only tux they have left in his size is a hideous powder blue one with a frilly shirt and a huge bow tie. He doesn't really mind this however and ends up wearing this to the prom.

The title character in Beetlejuice wears what appears to be a maroon moth-eaten velvet tuxedo with a white ruffled shirt. The white platform shoes do not help matters.

Cliff dresses in a standard tuxedo for his college fundraising banquet. When he must put in an appearance as Doctor Detroit in the same hotel he turns it inside out to reveal purple silk linings in the trousers and a red lining in the jacket.

In Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon finds an incredibly tacky maroon 1970s tuxedo at a thrift store, and wears it to his senior prom.

A three-piece suit version of this appears in Rocket Boys when Homer runs into his oddball friend O'Dell while shopping. They both find something that they think is great and is eye-catching enough to get him noticed by a campaigning John F. Kennedy. It's only after that when Homer reveals that the suit is bright orange. (His friend Emily Sue forces him to swap it for a normal blue one.)

Harry Dresden incorporates one of these into his vampire costume from Grave Peril, as he intends to thumb his nose at the actual vampires at a costume party by dressing as a cheesy version.

One of Wendy's feuding zombie ex-boyfriends in Death Warmed Over is dressed in a powder blue tuxedo. Dan marvels that anyone would choose to be buried, or to lay their late relative to rest, in a prom tux.

Apparently, Burt Hummel wore a deeply regrettable-sounding powder-blue tux with ruffled shirt and floppy bow-tie to his prom. It's probably a good thing that this is only described, not shown on-screen. What's even more mind-blowing is how Burt can admit to this and then get up nerve enough to criticise his sonKurt for planning to wear a very elegant formal kilt to his junior prom...

And apparently Artie takes fashion advice from Burt, because the cherry-red outfit he wore to the junior prom made him look like Austin Powers.

The one-off special Canned Laughter had a stand-up comedian dressed a extreme parody of the styles of the time (it was made in 1979).

On Boy Meets World, a nerdy guy who mistakenly thinks Topanga agreed to go to the prom with him shows up at her door wearing one of these.

Harry is asked to accompany one of his patients to her middle school dance (he's a pediatrician) in an episode of Empty Nest. He pulls out his old powder blue tuxedo for the occasion. The girl then shows up to apologize, explaining that one of her classmates asked her to be his date instead... and, hilariously, the kid is wearing the exact same outfit.

Video Games

In Façade, the couple's wedding photo shows groom Trip dressed in a black jacket, gray pants and pink bowtie, with a teal "flower" (really just a circular blob) in his lapel.

Web Comics

Wil in Questionable Content once went to a job interview in a suit better suited to the Regency. (Apparently the only other option involved a blazer that looked even weirder.) Fortunately for him, his interview was at the Local Hangout, which had a previously-established Running Gag about dressing up in old-timey outfits.

In an early storyline for General Protection Fault, the eponymous company gets invited to a black-tie event. While Nick and Dwayne end up picking sensible tuxedos, Fooker chooses this one. Amusingly enough, Nick complains about Ki and Trudy getting into a fight over wearing the same dress despite all the men wearing the same thing, only for Fooker to walk up to him.

Batman Beyond: Willie Watt wears an orange version to the spring dance in the episode "Golem". Made worse by the fact that other episodes show that future formal fashions are even more streamlined than those of today, meaning it was really, really out of date and it wasn't actually a formal occasion (the only guys are wearing pretty casual clothes).

Ron Stoppable wears one of these in Kim Possible, saying he borrowed it from his dad.

The Simpsons: Homer wore a blue version with a ruffled shirt in contrasting pink to his high school prom in "The Way We Was". He gets a pass, though, as it was legitimately the style at the time (1974).

When Donald Trump visited the UK and attended a state dinner with HM The Queen, much attention was drawn to his poorly-fitted suits, especially a dinner jacket that drew comparisons to the opera singer from Long-Haired Hare.

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